Russian Bombers Increase Flights Near U.S. Airspace

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Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force

Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force

For the second time since June, Russian nuclear bombers escorted by fighter jets have flown near U.S. and Canadian airspace around Alaska in recent days, prompting precautionary intercepts by American warplanes.

The encounters come amid Russian war games along the border with eastern Ukraine, raising Western concerns that Moscow might invade to support pro-Moscow separatists battling the Kiev government since spring.

A U.S. air command official acknowledged at least 16 Russian forays around Alaska and northern Canada in the past 10 days, describing them as routine training missions. One intercept spotted a Russian spy plane among the Tupolev Tu-95 “Bear” bombers and Tu-142 reconnaissance and anti-submarine aircraft.

“Over the past week, NORAD has visually identified Russian aircraft operating in and around the U.S. air defense identification zones,” Maj. Beth Smith, of the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, toldThe Washington Free Beacon.

Russian bombers have regularly flown along the sensitive airspace between Russia, Alaska and Arctic Canada, but Smith called the latest missions “a spike in activity.”

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ISIS Threatens America: ‘We Will Raise The Flag Of Allah In The White House’

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2014-07-23T200304Z_1_LYNXMPEA6M0WW_RTROPTP_4_IRAQ-SECURITY-BAGHDADI-e1406562077592 (1)The terror group President Barack Obama threatened to strike in Iraq Thursday evening is itself threatening to strike the American homeland.

“I say to America that the Islamic Caliphate has been established,” Abu Mosa, a spokesman for the terror group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), told VICE Media in a video interview posted online Thursday. “Don’t be cowards and attack us with drones. Instead send your soldiers, the ones we humiliated in Iraq.”

“We will humiliate them everywhere, God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House,” he added.

The video is the first of a multipart series on ISIS VICE Media says it plans to release. VICE Media reporter Medyan Dairieh recently spent three weeks in the ISIS-controlled Syrian city of Raqqa, which the terror group has proclaimed the capital of their newly declared Islamic caliphate.

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Barack Obama Approves Airstrikes on Iraq, Airdrops Aid

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Photo Credit: AP / Susan Walsh

Photo Credit: AP / Susan Walsh

By JULIAN E. BARNES, JEFFREY SPARSHOTT and NOUR MALAS.

President Barack Obama authorized targeted airstrikes and emergency assistance missions in northern Iraq, saying Thursday the U.S. must act to protect American personnel and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the face of advances by violent Islamist militants.

The U.S. military said it completed a delivery of meals and water to thousands of members of a religious minority who fled the town of Sinjar and are trapped in nearby mountains by the group calling itself the Islamic State.

Mr. Obama said he ordered the use of U.S. airstrikes if necessary either to stop militants from closing in on the northern city of Erbil or to allow local forces to aid the Yazidis, the religious minority. No U.S. strikes had been conducted by late Thursday, officials said.

His remarks at the White House capped a day of soaring concern about militant advances in Iraq, where extremist fighters seized control of areas long considered safe and took over the Mosul Dam, the country’s largest, according to local reports.

But Mr. Obama also acknowledged domestic jitters about renewed military involvement in Iraq, where America fought an eight-year war.

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Obama: Tonight I Authorized “Military” and “Humanitarian” Operations in Iraq

By Daniel Doherty.

Speaking from the State Dining Room on Thurday evening, President Obama announced that he had authorized two separate operations in Iraq: a “humanitarian mission” to bring food and supplies to ethnic minorities trapped and fearing for their lives on an isolated mountain in northern Iraq, and “limited military airstrikes” to prevent ISIS from slaughtering more innocents.

“They’re without food, without water, people are starving and children are dying of thirst,” he said.

Many too, he continued, have been indiscriminately massacred or even enslaved by ISIS forces in recent weeks. It was therefore, he argued, the responsibility of the US to intervene militarily.

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On the Footsteps of a Pandemic: Nigeria and Liberia Declare National Emergencies, CDC Issues Highest Emergency Alert

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Photo Credit: The Extinction Protocol

Photo Credit: The Extinction Protocol

The Nigerian government on Wednesday described the Ebola outbreak in the country as a national emergency. Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu said this at an emergency meeting convened by the House of Representatives Committee on Health over the Ebola outbreak in Abuja, the nation’s capital city. He said out of six Nigerians diagnosed with Ebola virus, one had died on Tuesday, adding that the other five patients were receiving treatment. The minister said everyone in the world now was at risk, adding that the experience of Nigeria had opened the eyes of the world to the reality of Ebola. He said there was no empirical evidence to show that bitter kola will prevent or cure the highly infectious disease. The outbreak, by far the largest in the nearly 40-year history of the disease, has infected 1,711 people and killed 932 this year in four western African countries — Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone — according to the World Health Organization. –Xinhua

CDC issues highest alert level: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday ramped up its response to the expanding Ebola outbreak, a move that frees up hundreds of employees and signals the agency sees the health emergency as a potentially long and serious one. The CDC’s “level 1 activation” is reserved for the most serious public health emergencies, and the agency said the move was appropriate considering the outbreak’s “potential to affect many lives.” The CDC took a similar move in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and again in 2009 during the bird-flu threat…

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Several Britons quarantined for Ebola amidst claims the virus may be airborne

Several British nationals have been voluntarily quarantined with suspected Ebola, according to the Daily Telegraph. The admission came from public health officials and follows revelations an individual in Cardiff had expressed fears they had contracted the disease. The exact number of people quarantined and their exact location have not been confirmed, but they are believed to be spread across the UK. The problem faced by public health authorities is that tests for Ebola are ineffective until the patients show symptoms. This means that they have to wait up to 21 days, which is the maximum incubation period. The World Health Organization has also claimed that the virus is spreading faster than they can control. This may be because of a misunderstanding about how the virus is transmitted; in 2012 a study suggested that Ebola may be transmitted through the air. Whilst the study was not conclusive the BBC reported that Canadian scientists had found that Ebola had been transmitted between animals that had never come into direct contact. This suggests that the current theory that it is only transmitted by exchange of bodily fluids may be wrong. However it is known that the individual in Cardiff has been confined to their home for the past week, after they returned from West Africa. The person visited West Africa where more than 1,600 people have been infected with the virus in recent months, resulting in 887 deaths. Public Health Wales said the person is “currently staying away from work and limiting contact with other people voluntarily.” A health official admitted there were “several cases” across the UK, but stressed the quarantines were purely a precaution as none of them had developed any symptoms of Ebola.

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New Video of Hamas Gives Case-Closed Evidence That They Use Civilians For Human Shields

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A new video of Hamas is giving case-closed evidence that they use civilians as human shields.

On Monday, Hamas was caught on tape by Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV (an Indian news network) assembling what appears to be a site to launch a rocket from a densely populated civilian area. The “alleged” launch site is surrounded by hotels and apartment buildings.

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Russian Gang Stole 1.2 Billion Net Passwords

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Photo Credit: Brian A. Jackson, Getty / iStockphoto

Photo Credit: Brian A. Jackson, Getty / iStockphoto

Security researchers say a Russian crime ring has pulled off the largest known theft of confidential Internet information, including 1.2 billion username and password combinations and more than 500 million email addresses.

The cyber gang injected malicious code to steal databases from at least 420,000 websites, says Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer for Hold Security in Milwaukee, Wisc.

“It is absolutely the largest breach we’ve ever encountered,” Holden said late Tuesday.

Most unsettling, he said, was finding his own credentials among the compromised data.

Hold Security cyber sleuths have been monitoring the cyber gang for about seven months, but only recently realized the magnitude of the gang’s operation, Holden said.

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Israel Says Ground Troops Out of Gaza as Cease-Fire Takes Effect

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

By Fox News.

The Israeli military has said that all of its ground forces have been removed from Gaza as a 72-hour cease-fire went into effect Tuesday.

The truce, agreed upon Monday by Israel and Hamas, took effect at 8 a.m. local time Tuesday (1 a.m. Eastern Time). The Times of Israel reported that a barrage of rockets were fired from Gaza minutes before the cease-fire was due to take effect. The paper also reported that Israeli’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted two rockets over central Israel, while two other rockets fell into open areas in southern Israel near the Gaza border, causing no damage or injuries.

There were also signs of tensions created by the Gaza fighting spreading to Jerusalem and the West Bank, including two attacks police say were carried out by Palestinian militants.

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told The Associated Press that the withdrawal would go forward after forces completed the destruction of the last of the 32 known tunnels used by Hamas militants to cross between Gaza and Israel to carry out attacks on soldiers and civilians.

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Why Jon Voight is speaking out on Gaza and Hollywood activism

By Max Schindler.

Hollywood celebrities on both sides of the political aisle are alternately supporting – and condemning – Israel’s month-long military operation in the Gaza Strip as the death toll climbs to more than 1,700 Palestinian and 67 Israeli casualties.

Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight is the latest to jump into the verbal fray. But the Middle East conflict has already heard from movie actors, radio jockeys, musicians and music producers. If there were a scorecard, it would be tilted toward public sympathy with the Palestinians.

Last week, Spanish actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, along with Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, denounced Israel’s aerial campaign in an open letter to a Spanish newspaper, calling for the European Union “to condemn the bombing by land, sea and air against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” adding:

“Gaza is living through horror these days, besieged and attacked by land, sea and air. Palestinians’ homes are being destroyed, they are being denied water, electricity [and] free movement to their hospitals, schools and fields while the international community does nothing.”

Their letter was “one of the most strident messages from any global cultural figure regarding the current conflict,” reported The Guardian, and their comments provoked a fierce backlash from a number of other celebrities.

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Ebola Terror at Gatwick as Passenger Collapses and Dies Getting off Sierra Leone Flight

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Photo Credit: Mirror.co.uk

Photo Credit: Mirror.co.uk

Airport staff tonight told of their fears of an Ebola outbreak after a passenger from Sierra Leone collapsed and died as she got off a plane at Gatwick.

Workers said they were terrified the virus could spread globally through the busy international hub from the West African country which is in the grip of the deadly epidemic.

The woman, said to be 72, became ill on the gangway after she left a Gambia Bird jet with 128 passengers on board.

She died in hospital on Saturday.

Ebola has killed 256 people in Sierra Leone.

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Georgia and Israel Join Forces to Defeat Shared Threats

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Photo Credit: Ilia Yefimovich / Getty

Photo Credit: Ilia Yefimovich / Getty

By Christopher Collins.

In a release sent to the news media on Sunday by the Deal for Governor Communications office, the state of Georgia, which buys millions in Israeli bonds annually, is currently engaged in cooperation with Israel on the front lines from anti-terrorism and cyber-security to trade and investment policy.

The write-up by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton also appeared in the Washington Times said that as the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship deteriorates at the national level, our states, local institutions and businesses are actually forging ever-closer relations with key Israeli institutions.

Relations between President Obama and his administration and the government of Israel has reached an all-time low to the point where Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Obama and his administration to back off and to stop second-guessing him on how he is dealing with Hamas.

Part of the fostering anger stems from Secretary of State, John Kerry’s proposal in calling for negotiations on Hamas demands, including opening border crossings into Gaza and relaxed boating restrictions off the Gaza coast. In addition, its language reportedly upgraded Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, to an equal plane with Israel, something that is annoying Netanyahu.

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Israel Strikes Gaza as Troops Start Redeploying

By Associated Press.

Israel struck several targets in Gaza on Sunday as ground troops began a gradual redeployment in some locations along the border area, a day after the government signaled it would scale back its 27-day-old offensive.

Israel had earlier said that a soldier it had feared captured by Hamas militants was instead killed alongside two other soldiers Friday near the southern town of Rafah in an ambush that shattered a cease-fire and ignited heavy shelling, leaving dozens of Palestinians dead.

On Sunday artillery shells slammed into two high-rise office buildings in downtown Gaza City and large explosions could be heard seconds apart, police and witnesses said. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said 30 Palestinians were killed Sunday, including nine in a single strike in the southern Gaza Strip. Israel said it carried out 180 strikes Sunday.

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Lebanese TV Station Adds Arabic 'N' to Name to Protest Iraqi Christian Persecution (+video)

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Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

Lebanese TV station LBCI is adding the Arabic letter “N” to its name in solidarity with Iraqi Christians, who are being persecuted for their faith by the jihadist terror group Islamic State. Supporters of Christians on social media adopted the Arabic “N” as a symbol after Islamic State terrorists used it to mark the homes of Christians in Mosul.

According to Lebanon’s Daily Star, the campaign began this week with anchor Dima Sadeq appearing on television wearing a shirt with the Arabic N on it and giving a monologue explaining the network’s support for Iraqi Christians (below, the only version of the remarks uploaded to YouTube, unfortunately without subtitles):

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